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Country Music Television, or CMT as it is usually called, is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
-oriented cable television
Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required....
 network. Programming includes music video
Music video

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a pop music or rock music song with lyrics. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings....
s, taped concert
Concert

A concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band....
s, movie
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, biographies
Biography

A biography is a description of someone's life, usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography by the same person it is about....
 of country music stars, and reality programs
Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors....
. CMT is owned and operated by MTV Networks
MTV Networks

MTV Networks Company, also known as MTV Networks, is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operation of many TV network and Internet brands, including the first MTV channel....
, a subsidiary of Viacom
Viacom

Viacom , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an United States media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable television and satellite television networks , and movie production and distribution ....
.

was launched on March 5, 1983 at 6:19 PM CST, created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee (see the founder's website at http://www.cmtcountry.com for more details.) Daniels put together the investor group of Telestar Corporation and the penny stock
Penny stock

In the United States, a penny stock is a common stock that trades for less than $5 a share and are traded over the counter through quotation services such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the Pink Sheets....
 company Blinder and Robinson in a 3-way ownership split.

Glenn D.






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Encyclopedia


Country Music Television, or CMT as it is usually called, is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
-oriented cable television
Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required....
 network. Programming includes music video
Music video

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a pop music or rock music song with lyrics. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings....
s, taped concert
Concert

A concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band....
s, movie
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, biographies
Biography

A biography is a description of someone's life, usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography by the same person it is about....
 of country music stars, and reality programs
Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors....
. CMT is owned and operated by MTV Networks
MTV Networks

MTV Networks Company, also known as MTV Networks, is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operation of many TV network and Internet brands, including the first MTV channel....
, a subsidiary of Viacom
Viacom

Viacom , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an United States media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable television and satellite television networks , and movie production and distribution ....
.

History

CMT was launched on March 5, 1983 at 6:19 PM CST, created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in Hendersonville, Tennessee (see the founder's website at http://www.cmtcountry.com for more details.) Daniels put together the investor group of Telestar Corporation and the penny stock
Penny stock

In the United States, a penny stock is a common stock that trades for less than $5 a share and are traded over the counter through quotation services such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the Pink Sheets....
 company Blinder and Robinson in a 3-way ownership split.

Glenn D. Daniels was the creator, founder, Program Director and first President of the network, originally called "CMTV" but always "Country Music Television." (The "V" was dropped in response to a complaint by competitor MTV). CMT(V) beat its chief competitor, The Nashville Network (TNN), on the air by 2 days. CMT was positioned to play 24-hour country music videos, while TNN was geared toward programming lending itself to a "country lifestyle". The first video to air on CMT was a performance clip of country music legend Faron Young
Faron Young

Faron Young , was an United States country music singer, predominantly in the honky tonk genre....
's classic hit, "It's Four in the Morning
It's Four in the Morning

"It's Four in the Morning" is a song made famous by the country music singing, Faron Young. Originally released in 1971, the song became his first chart-topper hit single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart since 1961's "Hello Walls." The song was songwriter by Jerry Chesnut....
".

In 1991, Gaylord Entertainment Company
Gaylord Entertainment Company

The Gaylord Entertainment Company operates a number of hotel, resort, and Mass media companies that were built by Edward Gaylord.Facilities owned include:...
 (then-owner of TNN) bought the financially-strapped network. The CMT logo was also changed to a simplified red, yellow, and blue design (which it would keep until 2004).

CMT Europe was launched in September 1993 as part of the Sky Multichannels
Sky Multichannels

Sky Multichannels was a package of Analog television offered by British Sky Broadcasting on the SES Astra satellites at Astra 19.2?E. The service started on 1 September 1993 and continued until the closure of BSkyB's analogue service on 27 September 2001, due to the launch and expansion of the Sky Digital platform....
 package, however it ceased broadcasting at the end of March 1998.

In 1997, both networks were sold to Westinghouse, the owner of the CBS
CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American radio network and television network. The name is derived from the initials of Columbia Broadcasting System, its former legal name....
 network. The acquisition of the two country-themed networks, along with the formation of the ill-fated "Eye On People
Discovery Times

Investigation Discovery is a digital cable channel, owned by Discovery Communications. The channel features programming dealing with criminal investigations, primarily homicide investigations, and other crime-related documentaries....
" network, and two regional sports network
Regional sports network

In the United States of America and Canada, a regional sports network, or RSN, is a cable television station that presents sports programming to a local market....
s (the Baltimore-area Home Team Sports, now Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic
Comcast SportsNet

Comcast SportsNet is a group of regional sports networks. The group is primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company.The channels, CSN Bay Area, CSN California , CSN Chicago, CSN Philadelphia, CSN New England, CSN Mid-Atlantic , CSN Northwest , and SportsNet New York have rights to carry some or all of the local professional te...
, and Midwest Sports Channel in the Twin Cities, now FSN North
FSN North

Fox Sports North is a regional sports network serving Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Iowa, Upper Michigan along the Wisconsin border and the eastern parts of North Dakota and South Dakota....
) formed the CBS Cable division, based in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry and a Charlotte office at Lowe's Motor Speedway
Lowe's Motor Speedway

Lowe's Motor Speedway is a Oval track in Concord, North Carolina, north of Charlotte. It features a long quad-oval track that seats 167,000 people, with room for 50,000 more spectators in the infield....
.

In 1999, Viacom acquired CBS, assuming ownership of CMT and TNN and folding them into the MTV Networks stable. The resulting moves in 2000 led to the closing of the CBS Charlotte office, while Viacom changed the format of TNN, eventually renaming it Spike TV
Spike TV

Spike , a division of MTV Networks, is an United States cable television television network designed for an audience described demographically as "young adult males." The network began life as The Nashville Network , founded by WSM, Inc....
. Viacom also changed the format of CMT, modeling it after MTV to include shows and movies in addition to music videos. Over time, the number of music videos on the network has continued to decrease with the addition of the CMT Pure Country
CMT Pure Country

CMT Pure Country is a digital cable and satellite television channel, it is the sister network to Country Music Television. It showcases country music music videos all day from the 1980s to the current day....
 (originally VH1 Country) digital-tier network.

CMT has experienced significant ratings gains since its acquisition by MTV Networks in 1999. As of 2007, the channel is available in more than 83 million homes.

Current programming

CMT's current programming features country music-oriented shows (i.e. country music videos, taped concerts, etc.), country lifestyle-oriented shows, and old shows and movies that prominently feature country or Southern-rock music. Much like sister channel VH-1, CMT has become a sought-after pop-culture channel in the last few years, with added emphasis on specials, countdowns, and reality programs as well as music videos.

Popular shows on CMT include Crossroads
Crossroads (CMT TV series)

CMT Crossroads is a television show broadcast on Country Music Television and Palladia that pairs country music artists with musicians from other music music genre....
 (a country artist is paired with an artist of a different genre, usually classic rock), Cross Country
Cross Country (CMT TV series)

CMT Cross Country is a television show broadcast on Country Music Television and Palladia that pairs two country music artists together. Each episode of CMT Cross Country features a different set of stars playing together....
 (two country music artists are paired), CMT Giants (a country legend is honored by current artists), Power Picks (online voting for upcoming videos), and Trick My Truck
Trick My Truck

Trick My Truck is a television program on Country Music Television . Often compared to shows like Pimp My Ride and Monster Garage, Trick My Truck showcases the talents of several individuals who scour truck stops throughout the United States in search of drivers whose rides are in need of drastic help....
 (big rig truck mechanics customizing trucks, title is a play on former popular MTV
MTV

MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
 show Pimp My Ride
Pimp My Ride

Pimp My Ride is a Television show produced by MTV. Each episode consists of taking one automobile in poor condition and restoring it, as well as custom car it....
).

CMT also shows country/rural lifestyle movies such as A Wedding on Waltons Mountain and Broken Bridges
Broken Bridges

Broken Bridges is a 2006 in film film starring Toby Keith, Lindsey Haun, Burt Reynolds and Kelly Preston. The film, a music-drama, is centred on a fading country singer's return to his hometown near a military base in Kentucky where several young men who were killed in a training exercise on the base were from....
. Specials on the network include profiles of country artists and award shows such as the CMT Music Awards
CMT Music Awards

The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The awards ceremony is held every April in Nashville, Tennessee and broadcast live on CMT....
.

CMT has launched several reality TV shows including Gone Country, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team is an American reality television series on Country Music Television. It is about the making of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders team....
, Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge
Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge

Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge is a six-episode American celebrity reality television show on CMT in which nine celebrities from across the board spend 10 days learning how to bull riding with retired rodeo star Ty Murray for the PBR Jack Daniels Invitational in Nashville....
, The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search
The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search

The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search is an United States reality television competition broadcast by Country Music Television. In the series, singing-dancing female bartenders compete for a position with the company's traveling troupe, and a $50,000 prize....
, and others.

Reruns are also a staple of CMT's programming. The Dukes of Hazzard aired on CMT from 2004 until early 2008, as did Hee Haw
Hee Haw

Hee Haw was a television variety show, initially co-hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark and featuring country music and humor with fictional, rural "Kornfield Kounty" as a backdrop....
 on a sporadic basis. Reruns of several shows that seemingly have little or nothing to do with country music (or have only a bare connection to southern culture) air or have aired recently on CMT, including MTV
MTV

MTV is an United States cable television network based in Media of New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJ ....
's Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days

Two-A-Days was a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham, Alabama....
, VH1
VH1

VH1 is an United States cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in television, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slighter older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music....
's Hogan Knows Best
Hogan Knows Best

Hogan Knows Best was an United States television show produced by Pink Sneakers Productions and centered around the family life of professional wrestling legend Hulk Hogan ....
 and (currently) Trading Spouses
Trading Spouses

Trading Spouses is a Fox Broadcasting Company reality show in which two families, usually of different social classes, swap wives or husbands for a week....
 and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition , is an Emmy Award winning reality television series providing home renovations for deserving families, hosted by Ty Pennington....
 (the latter is shared with TV Land
TV Land

TV Land is an United States cable television television network launched April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns MTV and Nickelodeon ....
). On September 27, 2008, the first Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon

Lethal Weapon is a 1987 in film action film, the first in a film series of Cinema of the United States that were released in 1987, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3, and Lethal Weapon 4, all directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a mismatched pair of Los Angeles Police Department detectives....
 film aired on the network.

A re-edited version of the program MTV Cribs
MTV Cribs

MTV Cribs is a reality television program on MTV that features tours of the houses and mansions of celebrities. The first show aired September 2000....
 that features archived Cribs segments featuring only celebrities in the country music field and those in Southern culture began airing in Jan. 2009.

See also

  • CMT (Canada)
  • CMT Films
    CMT Films

    CMT Films is the motion picture production division of Country Music Television. Its films are usually released by fellow Viacom division Paramount Vantage....
  • CMT Music Awards
    CMT Music Awards

    The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The awards ceremony is held every April in Nashville, Tennessee and broadcast live on CMT....
  • CMT Pure Country
    CMT Pure Country

    CMT Pure Country is a digital cable and satellite television channel, it is the sister network to Country Music Television. It showcases country music music videos all day from the 1980s to the current day....
  • Karaoke Revolution
    Karaoke Revolution

    Karaoke Revolution and its many sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix Music Systems and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games....


External links

  • Submit your original music videos.